GERMAN'S EXPLOITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21098, 4 February 1932, Page 10

GERMAN'S EXPLOITS.

CHASED BY A CONSTABLE. BLACK TRACKER AT WORK. While travelling toward Port Augusta, South Australia, on the road from Tarcoola, a few days before Christinas,' some woodcarters noticed the tracks of a man who appeared to bo walking barefooted through the sand. They followed the track for 12 miles, and found the man naked in a hut near Port Augusta West, lie had apparently discarded his clothes as he walked along. He was overcome by thirst. The woodcarters informed the Port Augusta police, who motored out and rescued the man. He proved to be a young German named Max Brunner, who had attempted to walk to Tarcoola without a swag, and without water. After several days at the police station ho was able to take the road again. Brunner was next heard of at 340-mile camp on the East-West railway line, where Mounted-Constable Lodge, of Tarcoola, arrested him for travelling without a ticket. On tho way to the police station ;ifc Tarcoola, Brunner made a dash for liberty. The constable chased him, but he threw a handful of sand in Mr. Lodge's eyes, temporarily blinding him. The chase continued through the town, but tho fugitive eventually escaped in tho darkness.

Next morning the constable enlisted tho services of a black tracker, who followed Brunner for 14 miles. For three miles the fugitive had walked along the rails of the East-West line, but the tracker had seen the imprint of the naked feet on the rails and followed it until Brunner left. the line. lie was eventually captured and taken to Port Augusta, where ho was sentenced to one month's imprisonment on a charge of having no visible means of support.